The New England Patriots have filled their offensive coordinator vacancy by bringing back Bill O’Brien, who was part of Bill Belichick’s staff from 2007 to 2011. O’Brien ended his 1st tenure with the Patriots as offensive coordinator before moving on to the college game as head coach of Penn State.
Despite receiving NFL head coaching interest in January of 2013, O’Brien stuck with the Nittany Lions until the Houston Texans moved on from Gary Kubiak and announced O’Brien as head coach January 2014.
O’Brien enjoyed success as head coach of the Houston Texans, leading them to 3 consecutive 9-7 seasons and one playoff win. His 4th season was his first with a losing record as a head coach, but bounced back to go 21-11 over his next two campaigns. His impressive 52 – 48 record as a head coach convinced the Texans to promote him to the vacant general manager role, where his most notable move was the much maligned trade of DeAndre Hopkins. He was removed from that role after the Texans began the 2020 season 0-4.
O’Brien went back to college in January of 2021, signing on as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Nick Saban at the University of Alabama. While he didn’t directly coach current Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, there was some overlap at Alabama as Jones reportedly worked with O’Brien to help acclimate him to the Crimson Tide as Jones was preparing for the upcoming draft.
The Patriots never officially named an offensive coordinator for the 2022 season, with assistant coach Matt Patricia given play calling duties. It was a surprising move as Patricia made his name as defensive coordinator and had never previously called plays on the offensive side of the ball.
While Mac Jones impressed in his first season after the Patriots took him 15th overall in the 2021 draft, the entire offense in the 2022 season was predictably stagnant and Jones showed a lack of growth under Patricia, lowering his completion percentage and increasing his interception rate.
With the hiring of a true offensive mind who understands the Patriot way, Belichick looks to unlock the potential that convinced him to use such a high value pick as the Patriots continue to struggle to find consistency in the position since the departure of Tom Brady.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: BenJones88. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.